Remembering a life,
a life that was not long enough,
cut short.
leaving behind gaping hole, a ragged tear, where a life used to be, a life with so much ahead.
An empty place where there should be an over flowing cup.
A place of grief, pain, sadness.
The Christian Gospel really doesn’t give answers to so many of our questions, it rather raises whole different categories of question and meaning.
We see the Cross. We see the Resurrection.
It does not justify suffering or explain it, it simply says that Jesus suffers, that Jesus’ life was cut short, that Jesus redeems suffering, that Jesus life was stronger than death.
Not that suffering is good for us, not that suffering is redemptive, but rather that God can be trusted to ultimately redeem all suffering, to heal all suffering, to make it right… someday.
Someday that empty place will be filled up, that life that was too short will be a life that is full and overflowing.
So we live in that place of both hope and emptiness.
Trusting Anna to God.
This is where faith becomes something that is hard and even belligerent, defiant, contrary to experience.
This is where faith becomes something built on hope rather than evidence.
Anna’s passing becomes an invitation:
An invitation to give thanks for sharing life with her, the life of someone who is truly beautiful.
For giving thanks for knowing what it is to love her and to be loved by her
Those are great gifts that you have been graced by.
You are given the invitation to go on living in faith and
hope and love.
You are now in a place of rugged terrain, of sharp edges and great contrast, a place of emptiness and grief, of hope and thanksgiving, of trust and letting go, of saying good-bye, of an unexpected and changed future, your lives have been changed forever, things will never be the same.
You will be there for a long time.
Know that in this wilderness you are not alone, that God can be trusted, that Anna’s life was a wonderful gift that you all shared for a time, a life that will be again, God holds her closely now, and God holds you close.
You are in a holy place, walk slowly.